New Testament in a Year

Chapter 16

¹ He then moved on to Derbe and Lystra where there was a disciple named Timothy,^[a] the son of a Jewish woman who had become a believer, but his father was a Greek. ² The brethren of Lystra and Iconium regarded him highly, ³ and Paul decided to take him along. Therefore, he had him circumcised, because of the Jews in that region who all knew that his father was a Greek.

⁴ As they traveled from town to town, they made known to the brethren there the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and the elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. ⁵ Day by day, the churches grew strong in the faith and increased in numbers.

⁶ They traveled through the region of Phrygia^[b] and Galatia because they had been told by the Holy Spirit not to preach the word in the province of Asia. ⁷ When they approached the border of Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but since the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to do so, ⁸ they passed through Mysia and came down to Troas.^[c]

Paul at Philippi.^{[d] 9} During the night, Paul had a vision in which a man of Macedonia appeared to him and pleaded with him, saying, “Cross over to Macedonia and help us.” ¹⁰ Once he had seen this vision, we immediately arranged for passage to Macedonia, convinced that God had summoned us to proclaim the good news to them.

¹¹ We set sail from Troas and made a straight run to Samothrace.^[e] On the following day, we reached Neapolis, ¹² and from there we sailed to Philippi,^[f] a leading city in the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We spent some time in that city.

¹³ On the Sabbath, we went outside the city gate alongside the river where we assumed there would be a place of prayer. We sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. ¹⁴ One of the women, whose name was Lydia, was a worshiper of God. She was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. As she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart to accept what Paul was saying. ¹⁵ When she and her household had been baptized, she urged us insistently, “If you regard me as a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my home.” And she won us over.

¹⁶ Paul Imprisoned at Philippi.^[g]On one occasion, as we were on our way to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who was possessed by a spirit of divination and brought large profits to her owners by fortune-telling. ¹⁷ She began to follow Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, and they have come to proclaim to you a way of salvation.” ¹⁸ She kept doing this for many days, until Paul became very greatly troubled. He turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And the spirit came out of her instantly.

¹⁹ When her owners realized that their hope of making money from her was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. ²⁰ They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are causing a disturbance in our city. They are Jews, ²¹ and they are advocating practices that it is illegal for us as Romans to adopt or follow.”